Neil Jordan's Byzantium stars Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as vampires of the mother and daughter variety. Ronan's 16-year-old Eleanor appears to be distraught with the secrecy of a lifestyle that forces her to kill to survive. Her mother, Arterton's Clara, seems to have no such objections and has carried on through the centuries killing and relying on her looks. When the pair move to a coastal British town, Eleanor reveals her secret to Frank (Caleb Jones Landry) and the past returns with a thirst for revenge.

The movie is clearly striking to look at, with beautiful locations and Arterton being exquisite and dangerously sexy as she revels in her immortality. The take on the vampires using their coke-thumbnails instead of fangs is interesting, as is the idea that only men should be vampires. However, there seems to be something just a bit off about the entire thing to me. It could be the way that the trailer is cut, but it feels as if everything and nothing are shown at the same time. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn't.

Can we talk for just a moment about Caleb Landry Jones (X-Men: First Class) as the love interest? Because he looks like Henry Kane in this outfit.

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Comments Are Welcome, Bigots and Trolls Are Not

logan

Hot female vampires? I'm IN!

Yes i am that easy.

Gayle

A Neil Jordan film without Stephen Rea? What is this madness?

Alberto Cox Délano

WELL, I hope that however mixed the results of this movie are, we might use to erase "The Host" from memory once and for all?I'm down with non-angsty vampires. I want asshole, hedonistic vampires.

John G.

If we're going to keep making vampire movies, then we need to update the themes. We can't keep making it about the conflict of eternal life paid for with death, and the conscientious objector vampire who changes everything.

NateMan

It's like we're on the same vampiric wave-length.

It's one reason why I like The Vampire Diaries, for all its cheese. It's full of non-angsty monsters, and it's such a refreshing change.

John G.

I've been afraid of it, because of the cheese, so I haven't dipped in. You think I should give it a try?

NateMan

I'd say so. It's a fun cheese. Grit your teeth to get thru the first episode or so, and gleefully watch Ian Somerhalder chew the scenery and the extras. An excellent example of what a vampire should be.

mats19

Ian Somerhalder is a force to watch on Vampire Diaries the smarm and charm and everything really is totally worth some of the more ridiculous story lines.

NateMan

I'll watch it when it's at Redbox, but am I the only one sick and tired of vampires with a conscience? I mean, for Christ's sake, if you're sick of eating people just walk into the sunlight already. There are 7+ billion people on this planet, and you're angsting over wasting a couple of them? You can't find delicious dirtbags and eat them guilt-free?

Edit: I mean, the more I think about it, this is especially ridiculous with female vampires. If you're a dude vampire and you have weird, homophobic hangups about eating guys, okay, that makes it a little more difficult. But women deal with so many assholes that it should be relatively simple. Go to a club. Flirt with a douchey looking guy. Go back to his place. If he's not willing to take no for an answer on sex: BAM. Eat a date rapist and improve the breeding stock.

And that's how you make lemonade.

Long_Pig_Tailor

You make an interesting point, and I'm going to take it on the most screwed up tangent ever. I mean, as you say, 7+ billion people in the world-- Seven. Billion. That's... I mean, that's industrial livestock kinds of numbers. Even with a conscience, at some point, as a vampire you've got to realize that your eating habits are, in practical terms, having about the same kind of impact on humanity that humanity's eating habits are having on chickens, or cattle. It's not to say there isn't a moral argument to be made, because obviously killing people is bad, but as you say, some people? They kinda have it coming. And if you do eat them, hey, it's about as important a loss to the human race as a person's Big Mac is a loss to cowkind.